Dix Hills Vet Takes Over For Her Dad

Alison Rhein always knew she wanted to be a veterinarian. She spent her childhood watching her father, Dr. Harvey Rhein, who founded Dix Hills Animal Hospital in 1967.

"I was there with my dad every weekend, always touching everything," she said. "I knew that's what I wanted to do with my life."

Growing up in Dix Hills, she attended Forest Park, Candlewood and then Half Hollow Hills West. She graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995.

Now "Dr. Ali," as she is called by her patients, runs Dix Hills Animal Hospital herself. Her father retired eight years ago but still comes in occasionally, she said, to do procedures for patients that their owners couldn't afford to get somewhere else.

"He will also see patients for me if I need him to cover. He can't believe how medicines and treatments have changed since he started out," Rhein said. "He's my biggest fan."

Rhein worked in the city at the Tribeca-Soho Animal Hospital for seven years treating celebrities' dogs until she hesitantly came out to her hometown of Dix Hills to take over for her father.

"His practice was very old fashioned," she said. "I was used to all modern equipment and things in the city." So she renovated Dix Hills Animal Hospital, adding new equipment, as well as new faces. "If you build it, they will come," she said.

She has an all-female staff now in her state-of-the-art facility.

"It's a girl's hospital," Rhein said. "Everything's labeled and organized." She works with one other vet, Suzanne Ravitz, and her office manager, her technicians and her assistants are all women.

Her practice, she said, is geared toward wellness and preventative care. Rhein and her team have instituted several screening protocols to make sure all their patients stay healthy. "I don't believe in vaccinating for everything. Many vets will give your dog or cat vaccines that he or she doesn't really need. I want to do the right thing for your cat or dog."

She also won't put a healthy animal to sleep because people decided the pet is inconvenient. "There are vets in the middle of nowhere who will do that--vets out in the country. It's nice to be able to take away suffering," she said. "But I won't put down a healthy animal."

She just had to put down one of her own dogs, who was 13. "He was a rescue and he had a bunch of things wrong with him. He lasted a long time. He had a much longer life with me than he would have had with someone else. He was a good dog. I miss him."

When Rhein first moved back to Dix Hills, she had one dog. Now she has three cats and four dogs. She lives three minutes from where she grew up with her partner Julie.

"This is exactly how I imagined my life. Cats and dogs. That's what I wanted. My life is very rewarding."